Saudi Arabia issued more foreign investor licences during the first three months of 2021 than during any previous quarter since records began in 2005.
The Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) said the issuance of 478 licences in the first quarter of the year reflected the acceleration of the kingdom’s investment landscape following the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Q1 issuance marked a 2.6 percent quarterly increase and was also the fourth consecutive increase in the number of new foreign investment projects since the peak of the pandemic in Q2 2020, Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.
As the G20 nation seeks to diversify its economy, the latest figures also showed that 114 new licences issued in Q1 were for the manufacturing sector.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources showed that $4.7 billion worth of industrial investments were made in the quarter, more than four times higher than the same quarter in 2020.
The retail and ecommerce (78 licences), construction (78), professional and scientific (62) and ICT (41) sectors also accounted for a significant proportion of growth.
Following a 2018 reform in the kingdom that allowed for the first time the 100 percent foreign ownership of companies, 59 percent of new investment projects in Q1 were full foreign ownership, with the remainder being joint ventures with local investors.
The figures were revealed in MISA’s Spring 2021 Investment Highlights report, which outlined recent pro-business reforms.
Khalid Al-Falih (pictured above), Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia, said: “These latest figures show that, despite the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy, foreign investors continue to have great confidence in Saudi Arabia’s historic transformation journey under the guidance of Vision 2030.
“Despite common global challenges, more and more investors are starting businesses in the Kingdom, FDI inflow into Saudi Arabia is at its highest level since 2016 when Vision 2030 was launched, and global interest in Saudi financial assets traded on our Tadawul stock exchange continues to grow.
“Our goals are ambitious, but we are making progress at an accelerated pace to make it easier and quicker for international businesses of all sizes to access opportunities, opening up a wide and diverse range of economic sectors. So I am particularly delighted to see such a big increase in manufacturing, evidence that investors are looking beyond oil to other Saudi sectors like construction, retail & e-commerce, professional & scientific services, and ICT.”
The report’s findings correspond with trends indicated by UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2021, published in June, which noted that foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia remained robust, with inflows increasing to $5.5 billion.
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